Gomez

Selena Gomez Reveals She Underwent Chemotherapy for Lupus

Selena Gomez dropped off the scene for a bit in early 2014, and while the media reported at the time that Gomez had entered a rehab facility, the pop star never addressed the “break.” In a new interview with Billboard, out today, though, she reveals that she was being treated during that time for the autoimmune disease lupus.

“I was diagnosed with lupus, and I’ve been through chemotherapy,” Gomez told the magazine. “That’s what my break was really about. I could’ve had a stroke.”

Gomez says that the rumors about why she had entered rehab and the scrutiny over her every move were understandably tough to bear.

“I wanted so badly to say, ‘You guys have no idea. I’m in chemotherapy. You’re assholes,’” she says. “But I was angry I even felt the need to say that. It’s awful walking into a restaurant and having the whole room look at you, knowing what they’re saying. I locked myself away until I was confident and comfortable again.”

Gomez also had some words for the tabloid-industrial complex as a whole, mulling that, as “nice” as she has been for the entirety of career, she has not received the same respect in return. “I’m so f—ing nice to everybody, and everyone is so vile to me. I’ve been working since I was 7. I’ve been a UNICEF ambassador since I was 17. It’s so disappointing that I’ve become a tabloid story. It took away everything I loved about this business.”

That “tabloid story” she is referencing here mainly refers to, of course, her years-long on-and-off relationship with Justin Bieber, about whom Gomez says, “I’m proud of [his recent musical output] . . . This is what I always saw in him, why I always believed in him.” They’re “on good terms,” she says, though they are not currently talking. When asked if she takes “inspiration from his career evolution,” Gomez—whose album Revival is out Friday—retorts, “No. This is my time. I’ve deserved this. I earned it. This is all me.”